More than 100,000 Coalition Troops in Iraq

WASHINGTON, March 31,
2003 – More than 300,000 coalition troops are deployed in
support of combat operations, with more than a third of
those inside Iraq, defense officials said today.

In
addition, each day about 2,000 coalition service members,
"flow" into the theater each day, Pentagon spokeswoman Torie
Clarke said at a press conference.

Progress is also being
made on the ground. "We've seized additional key bridges
over the Euphrates River and conducted offensive operations
to isolate As Samawa and An Nasiriyah in order to destroy
irregular forces in those areas," said Army Maj. Gen. Stan
McChrystal, a Joint Staff spokesman.

McChrystal said the
air campaign is hammering the Medina, Hammurabi, Baghdad and
Al Nida divisions of the Iraqi Republican Guard. Coalition
air forces also hit command, control and communications
targets and air defense sites in Baghdad and in northern
Iraq.

Coalition forces have fired more than 700 Tomahawk
land attack missiles and dropped more than 8,000 precision-
guided munitions since Operation Iraqi Freedom began 12 days
ago, McChrystal said.

These land and air strikes have
degraded Republican Guard units significantly, he said. "I
won't put an exact number on it, but I'll say very
significant weakening of the forces," McChrystal
said.

Republican Guard units are moving from north of
Baghdad, the general said. "What we think we are seeing them
do is move to reinforce other forces that have already been
significantly degraded or 'attrited' at this point," he
said. "So we think they're trying to strengthen where they
were."

Republican Guard units are placing their armor and
infantry vehicles in residential areas. "We continue to see
them put (their armor) next to houses, all kinds of
structures," he said. "It's still targetable, but it's more
difficult (to hit)."

McChrystal said the coalition forces
are positioning themselves "to try to destroy those
divisions that stand in our way."

But the general pointed
out that direct attack isn't the only way to degrade a
unit.

"Once you start to take a certain percentage of a
force like that down – particularly a mechanized or armor
force – the systems start to break down," he said. The
Republican Guard's supply system, maintenance system,
command and control systems degrade and place other assets
out or order.

U.S. officials still believe that the Iraqi
regime has the capability and possibly the intent to use
chemical or biological weapons on coalition forces. "We are
targeting in a number of ways -- through information
operations, through attacking launchers or capabilities, the
different ways they could deliver those munitions -- to try,
again, to prevent their use," McChrystal said.

Coalition
forces are targeting suspected or potential storage sites
very carefully so a bomb doesn't release a plume of chemical
agents, he said.

Clarke said the war is going well and
U.S. forces can be relieved about the things that haven't
happened.

"Unlike the Gulf War, no Iraqi Scud missiles
have been fired into Israel," she said. "Unlike the Gulf
War, the oil fields have not been turned into a huge
bonfire, wreaking enormous economic and environmental
damage."

There has not been a humanitarian crisis or mass
exodus of refugees. "There has, as yet, been no Iraqi use of
weapons of mass destruction," she said.

"Of course, bad
things may still occur," she continued. "Some of the
toughest fighting, as we have indicated, may well lie ahead.
But the fact that none of the predicted disasters has
happened yet is good news in itself, and testimony to the
progress we're making."

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